


This Was a Bad Idea

by incrediblysilly



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, M/M, Other, Roommates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-24
Updated: 2013-06-24
Packaged: 2017-12-16 00:17:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/855622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incrediblysilly/pseuds/incrediblysilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The worst idea in fact. When Enjolras gets bumped out of his apartment with Combeferre and Courfeyrac, he takes a chance that he immediately regrets and ends up living in a cramped dorm with the most insufferable person he has ever had the misfortune of meeting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Was a Bad Idea

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my first Les Mis fic and my first fanfic in a good 3-4 years actually. Enjoy!

In retrospect, he should have just opted for a single. It wasn’t like he couldn’t afford it, and he also knew he didn’t have the best track record with new people. So, last spring when Courfeyrac begged him to let Jehan take his place in their apartment in the fall, he shouldn’t have made the decision to take on a new roommate. There had always been the option of saying no and keeping his spot in the tried and true living space with Combeferre, and Courfeyrac, but contrary to popular belief, he did in fact have a heart. He cared about his friends, even if he didn’t always show it, and though he might never admit it aloud, he wanted them to be happy.

He wasn’t stupid, he had seen Courfeyrac and Jehan’s relationship coming. Before they did, even. He hadn’t noticed it as quickly as Combeferre had or even Feuilly and Joly, but he would have had to have been blind not to see how much happier they were after they finally took the plunge and Courfeyrac had taken Jehan out to dinner.

He knew his friends didn’t realize how much he noticed but he didn’t mind. He preferred to keep them in the dark when it came to that, anyway. He had more important things to worry about, usually, and it was better to be the one to keep the group grounded and focused on their causes as much as he could.

But when Courfeyrac had come to him about Jehan taking his place, he might have put on a bit of a show of being annoyed, but in reality, it didn’t take much to convince him.

Courfeyrac had cornered him in their living room one afternoon, awkwardly mumbling something about him and Jehan being pretty serious and then going off on a tangent about how they really wanted to live together next year. “We’d get a room ourselves, but you know how I am with RA’s and I already checked with Combeferre and he said it was fine with him if it was fine with you and so we were wondering if maybe you wouldn’t mind?”

Enjolras had been listening patiently, a practiced expression of annoyance on his face. He’d known what his answer would be as soon as he had worked out what he was being asked, but it was always amusing to make Courfeyrac squirm.

“Would I mind what? Is there a point to this?” he asked, replacing the wry smile that wanted to form with a bored expression that seemed to make Courfeyrac even more uncomfortable. If he wanted Enjolras to move out, the least he could do was ask him right out rather than beating around the bush.

“Would you mind if Jehan took your spot in the apartment next year? Maybe?” Courfeyrac asked meekly.

“Sure,” Enjolras replied, easily.

“I mean, I know it’s silly since we’d be sharing a room so the third one would be empty. It’s so stupid that there’s a three person limit on these apartments...wait. What? You’re not saying no?” When Courfeyrac finally stopped stumbling over his words long enough to realize he had been given an answer, he just stared at Enjolras in shock.

“Of course I’m not saying no. I’m not some grouchy ogre that hates happiness,” he said, slightly annoyed at the assumptions his friends made about him. But he chose to let it go since he did tend to encourage the opinions with his admittedly cold behavior. “I’ll ask around at the meeting tomorrow to see who needs a roommate next year. I’m sure someone will be up for it.”

Courfeyrac had thanked him profusely, wrapping Enjolras in a hug that he didn’t respond to. He’d never been a particularly affectionate person, but he nodded awkwardly, patting Courfeyrac’s back once or twice before he was mercifully let go.

Needless to say, no one had been available to be his roommate the following fall, but he could hardly go back on his promise to Courfeyrac. He had been so sure at the time that everything would be fine.

In retrospect, he couldn’t believe how stupid it had been to believe that. He missed the earlier days of the semester when it was almost like he didn’t have a roommate at all.

*

On move in day, Enjolras got his key and headed up the stairs to his dorm, gritting his teeth and steeling himself for the worst possible roommate he could imagine. He hoped that the mental preparation would make things easier but knew that it probably wouldn’t. But when he opened the door, the room was bare. Not that this was entirely a surprise, considering his roommate had the entire day show up. Enjolras had arrived incredibly early after all. Even the RA’s had barely finished setting up when he showed up. Combeferre, Courfeyrac and Jehan came trailing in his wake shortly after, with coffees in their hands and some grumbling (on Courfeyrac’s part), about having to be up so early for no reason.

“Quit complaining, it’s your fault he had to switch dorms in the first place. The least you can do is help him move his stuff,” Combeferre said disapprovingly, to which Courfeyrac merely shrugged sheepishly and Jehan had the courtesy to look embarrassed.

Enjolras sighed, relieved but still on edge, wishing he had just sprung for the single, knowing there wouldn’t be any available now to switch into if this new roommate really was a disaster. All  he knew was his name, which he only knew from the nametags the RA had put on the door.

_GRANTAIRE_

The block letters on the cartoon fish stared back at him blankly.

“Let’s get started,” he said, turning away from the nametag and trying to swallow the feeling that this was going to be a trainwreck. Combeferre would be the first to remind him that he was being paranoid.

“Quit worrying, Enjolras,” Courfeyrac said jovially, knocking Enjolras’ shoulder with his own and leading the group out into the hallway and toward the stairs.

“I’m perfectly fine,” Enjolras said, not bothering to look at Courfeyrac.

“Oh, sure you are. You’re totally not thinking about every single way this could possibly go wrong,” Courfeyrac teased. “Ooh, what if he’s really messy? Or maybe he’ll be bringing ladies back to your room all the time and you’ll never get to actually stay in your room!” he crowed, bursting into fits of giggles.

“Well, I’m not living with you so I doubt that will be a problem,” Enjolras snapped, pushing the door to the building open and feeling rather smug at the way Jehan’s cheeks flushed bright red.

“Stop it, Courf. Leave him alone,” Jehan said quietly, tugging on Courfeyrac’s sleeve. “I’m sure it’ll be...great. He’ll be great, Enjolras!” he said, and if Enjolras noticed the hesitation he didn’t say anything about it.

“Seriously, you’ll be fine,” said Combeferre in a gentle tone, the first person to actually get anywhere near soothing Enjolras’ nerves.

“You lived with Bousset freshman year, remember?” piped up Courfeyrac. “I doubt anything can be as bad as your roommate accidentally lighting your room on fire. And you managed a whole year dealing with Bousset’s bad luck.”

“If you can do that, you can do anything,” Jehan said, patting Enjolras’ back softly.

Enjolras had to admit that they had a point. Coming home after his midterm in his first semester of school to find that Bousset had somehow managed to set his own bed on fire had definitely been one of his worst experiences in dorm life. Luckily, Enjolras had managed to put out the fire with his pillow, but unfortunately not before the smoke alarm had gone off and the entire building had to be evacuated.

They had spent over an hour stuck outside in the rain with Bousset apologizing profusely and Enjolras resolutely ignoring him in an attempt to stop himself from blowing up at his roommate. Enjolras doesn’t know how he managed to leave his iron face down on his bed but he doesn’t care to either. All he had been thinking was that whenever they were let back inside, if the fire department hadn't already done so, he'd confiscate the iron himself. Bousset could have wrinkly trousers for the rest of the year for all he cared.

Their room had smelled like melted plastic from the school issue mattress for weeks afterward.

“Well there’s no use talking about it now,” he sighed. They had finally reached Combeferre’s car and Enjolras was thankful for the use of it. He’d hardly be able to move his things on his bicycle and he had turned avoiding his parents into an art.

Thankfully Combeferre didn’t push the subject, and simply unlocked the car, at which point Courfeyrac immediately started trying to make it into a competition of who could carry the most boxes at once. Enjolras took one look at him staggering under the weight of some of his books, the boxes teetering dangerously, and yanked the top two out of his arms.

“You’re going to drop them!” he reprimanded.

“Ah, of course, my safety doesn’t matter, just the books!” Courfeyrac teased. “Did you hear that Jehan? He’s such a bad friend.”

“I did hear that,” Jehan agreed with an amused grin on his face, but he took one of the boxes out of Enjolras’ hands all the same. Once Combeferre had grabbed a box as well they set off back toward the building. Thankfully, the doorway was open for move in day, but once they had ascended the stairs and Enjolras held his hand out for the key to his room, he was ready to murder Courfeyrac for the expression that was somewhere between guilty and confused.

“I...it was in my pocket, I swear!” he said, frantically, setting his box on the floor to free his other hand and continue searching his pockets.

“Enjolras, you really shouldn’t have trusted Courf with it in the first place,” Combeferre said gently, always the voice of reason, but his efforts only earned him a stony glare.

“Um. Well...”, Courfeyrac began, but Enjolras was quick to cut him off.

“What did you do?” he asked, his tone cutting.

“Um, there’s a hole in my pocket?” Courfeyrac said meekly, trying to smile innocently at his friends but it ended up looking more like a grimace, the longer Enjolras stared at him so coldly.

The ensuing silence was more than uncomfortable and Combeferre, ever the peacemaker, was the first to break it. “Enjolras, why don’t you stay here and keep an eye on the boxes, we’ll go look for your key. If we don’t find it we’ll make Courfeyrac pay for the replacement.”

“Hey!” Courfeyrac yelped indignantly. “You said it yourself that he shouldn’t have trusted me with it!”

“You’re really not helping your case at all, Courf,” Jehan said, gently patting his shoulder. “Come on, we’ll look out in the parking lot, Combeferre can check the stairs and the entrance.”

Enjolras sighed irritably but didn’t say anything further, choosing instead to sit on one of the boxes and lean his head back against the wall. If this was a sign of how this living situation was going to end up working out, he was not looking forward to his roommate showing up. He knew that Jehan would likely reprimand him for his negative thinking, ( _“If you think it’s going to be terrible than it will be! You need to utilize the power of positive thinking!”_ ), but Jehan wasn’t here right now and The Secret was stupid anyway. You couldn’t just wish things into fruition. You had to make them happen.

He checked his watch. It was almost 9 and he could hear more people in the stairwell coming up. Unfortunately they were not voices he recognized, and he quickly moved to push his boxes against the wall around his door, making room for people to get by. A few people came chattering down the hallway, shooting pitying looks at Enjolras, which only served to irritate him further and brought him to cursing out Courfeyrac in his head. None of them approached him though, and he could only conclude that this Grantaire person had still not arrived.

The buzzing of his phone brought him out of his reverie and he flipped his phone open after a cursory glance at the Caller ID.

“Yes?” he said tersely.

“Enjolras I found it!” Courfeyrac shouted gleefully, to which there was a muffled shout from Jehan that Enjolras couldn’t quite make out. “Alright, alright, Jehan found it, but we’re on our way up!”

Enjolras nodded and hung up the phone, belatedly realizing that Courfeyrac would not have been able to see him nod through the phone, but not caring enough to apologize for hanging up on him when he came bounding up the stairs two at a time, brandishing the key high above his head with Jehan and Combeferre following (at a much slower pace) a few moments later.

“Thank you Jehan,” Enjolras said, snatching the key out of Courfeyrac’s hand and unlocking the door. He held it open as his friends brought the boxes in and lined them up against the wall before finding something to prop the door open with.

The rest of the day went more smoothly than he ever could have expected. This was probably because his new roommate had still not bothered to show up. Someone nonexistant could hardly cause problems.

Once they finished bringing his small number of boxes up the stairs, he and Combeferre set to work lofting his bed, leaving Courfeyrac and Jehan to figure out how to set up his bookshelf. Unfortunately, neither of them seemed to have the skills to follow directions.

“They’re always so _boring_ , I take one look at them and zone out,” whined Courfeyrac, screwdriver hanging uselessly from his fingers.

“They’re directions for setting up a bookshelf, Courfeyrac, it’s not...Jehan, what are you doing?”

Jehan it seemed, had not even bothered to look at the directions and had already begun setting things up his own way and Enjolras did not understand how Jehan’s...construction was supposed to in any way resemble a bookshelf.

“Nevermind, just give me the screwdriver,” Enjolras demanded, holding out his hand and taking it along with the directions while Courfeyrac just grinned good naturedly. “Courfeyrac you can go put my sheets on my bed...Jehan. Stop. I don’t know what you’re trying to make, but it’s not a bookshelf.”

“Modern art?” Jehan suggested, with a laugh.

Enjolras ignored Combeferre’s poorly stifled chuckle, and pointed Jehan to his box of clothing. “Just put those on hangers and put them in the closet.”

“Yes, sir!” Jehan said, giving him a mock salute and bringing the box of clothes over to the closet.

Combeferre got started on setting up his internet connection while Enjolras got to work on the bookshelf. He could admit to himself, if to no one else, that the instruction manual was a bit dense. But it was a bookshelf, not rocket science and skimming the instructions hardly took a minute of his time. He was quickly able to get to work on setting it up and then organizing his books on the shelves. His textbooks would go on the shelf provided by the university above his desk, but he couldn’t leave his entire collection at home. Besides, he brought little else so he had plenty of room for his books.

Aside from the necessaries like bedsheets, toiletries, and clothing (of which he didn’t have much since he didn’t particularly care about quantity as long as he had the essentials and could maintain a professional appearance), it really was just his books. He had one decoration, a French flag that he hung above his bed, and once Combeferred helped him finish putting the books on the shelf by Author, his things were set up.

Surveying the room one last time to make sure everything was in order, Enjolras had to admit he was rather pleased. Initially he had been worried his books wouldn’t fit into the dorm room, since it was smaller than the bedrooms in their apartment, but even though he could only utilize half the space of the room, they had managed it. Really the lack of space had only made it look fuller, like someone actually lived there, rather than the empty look having everything spaced out gave it. Not that Enjolras would have noticed this, but when Jehan pointed it out, he nodded in agreement, thanking his friends for their help.

However, the waiting was making him antsy and he was more than happy to follow his friends back to their apartment on the other side of campus. They spent most of the night watching movies. Or at least that was the official description of the evening. Combeferre went to bed early after having enough of Courfeyrac and Jehan attempting to make kissing an olympic sport on the couch, while Enjolras ignored both the movie and his friends in favor of the thick book he brought with him on the armchair.

He ended up staying the night in his old room, since Courfeyrac and Jehan were sharing Courfeyrac’s. Enjolras briefly wondered why the two of them didn’t just get a dorm room together but it wasn’t worth getting irritated over. They’d probably just be so loud they got kicked out, if Courfeyrac’s roommate from the previous year wasn’t exaggerating about their...nighttime rituals. Enjolras winced, thinking about it. Even without that, Courfeyrac loved having parties and if the loud sex wouldn’t get them in trouble, the parties would. Besides, this way he can use the spare room whenever he needs to if new roommate is truly awful. He curls up under Jehan’s flowery bedspread and hopes that this Grantaire person will be someone he can get along with.

When he arrived back at his own dorm the next morning, it was to find a bag of clothes dumped carelessly on Grantaires desk, the large portfolio the art students are always carrying leaning against the wall, a bag of paint bottles spilling out onto the floor, and a lump of blanket with a tuft of black hair sticking out on the bed opposite his own, that he could only assume was Grantaire.

This was a bad idea.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [Tumblr](http://choicezard.tumblr.com)! Thanks [zimriya](http://zimriya.tumblr.com) for beta-ing! =)


End file.
